Tarot
by Scotia Daniel
Summary: April seeks out answers to strange dreams she has at a psychic shop down the street only to discover that maybe the answer she wasn't ready to hear could be told through a single tarot card.


April O'Neil had felt silly thinking about what she was doing. Felt silly walking down the street towards the building. Felt silly for even considering believing superstition. Yet, there she was standing outside of the psychic shop down the block from where her aunt lived.

The red head glanced at the neon sign in the window of a hand and an eye in the center. The doorway leading into the shop was covered with beads and drapes. April wanted to turn away and pretend she had never been there. But she had to know the answers to the questions she herself and others couldn't answer.

April took a deep breath and walked through the drapes and beads. The room was dark and musky. Smoke filled the air and the strong, musky smell of jasmine incense filled her nose. She was torn between wanting to cough and gag.

"Come in! Come in, sweetie!" A sweet voice called from a table in the corner. April made her way to the voice and a figure appeared behind the smoke. It was a woman. She was tall and lean, her cheek bones sunk in and her face was coated with way too much make up. Long fake nails were glued to the tips of her fingers and April tried to hold back from showing her repulsion.

The woman took a drag of a cigarette from a cigarette holder. She blinked and looked at April with knowing eyes. She smiled, showing off an array of yellowed teeth and put out the cancer stick.

"Ah, April! I've been expecting you!"

"How did you know my name?"

"Madame Brigitte knows all and sees all, my love. Sit down! Sit! I've been expecting you for hours now. I really do not like to be kept waiting."

April took a seat across from the woman. The red head fiddled with her hands in her lap, smoothing out the wrinkles in her pants and tights before going back to messing with her fingers and repeating the cycle.

"If you knew I was coming...then do you know why I'm here?"

The woman leaned back with a pleased smile on her aged face. She sat in silence and April wondered if she had even heard her.

"I'm here to talk about-"

"Ah, yes, the dreams."

April felt herself jerk back from the woman's statement. The old woman slowly blinked and leaned in, her bony elbow resting on the table. She reached over to a book shelf on the wall and took down a small box. She opened it to reveal wooden tarot cards.

The woman shuffled them and held them out to April. She chose a random card and offered it to the woman. Madame Brigitte looked it over with bored eyes. A light gleamed in her orbs and she placed the card down for April to see.

It was The Lovers card. A man and woman were bound together by what appeared to be a serpent. "Ahhh...so your dreams have led to this."

"W-what?"

"You can repress yourself all you want, April. But you can't keep denying how you're feeling inside. This boy...you may say you don't love him. You may say it's just a passing phase. You may say these images that have found their way into your mind are nonsense, but deep down, do you honestly believe that?"

April felt herself sweating and she glanced down at the card. She watched as the woman's hair seemed to grow longer and more orange, its beady eyes turning blue. The man beside her seemed to green in comparison and his head appeared to glow with a purple halo. The serpent appeared to move and lifted its head to look at her. It was almost as though it were saying: 'You can run but you can't hide.'

The red head thought about the images from her dreams. Of her kissing the purple clad ninja she knew. Of them holding hands. Of them sticking by each others side to even events in the future where an older April would glance at herself in a mirror and see the beautiful white dress she wore.

April stood up and darted out of the shop. She knew she should pay for her visit but she wanted to get as far from the place as possible. It must have been the smoke that had gotten to her. The pressure of being in a place like that. As she ran, she could've sworn she heard the cackle of Madame Brigitte following her down the street. She didn't feel safe from the voice until she was in her aunt's apartment with her back against the door.

She thought about the events, what the woman had said and the scene with the snake. She thought about her dreams and how Madame seemed to almost see right through her. See something she herself was too afraid to admit. She thought about the tarot card and thought that maybe, just maybe, her future really was encoded in the messages her dreams sent and engraved in the wood of the tarot card itself. April took a step away from the door and tried to stop herself from shaking. Whatever happened, she knew that she'd find out eventually whether she liked it or not.


End file.
